Council planning application for beachfront land to be refused

  The strip of land that

 Ards Borough Council

 wanted to sell for

 development.

Ards Borough Council has been formally notified that Planning Service intends to refuse its application to build a house and garage on land at Main Road adjoining Cloughey Beach.  The recommendation was reported to a Council Committee last week, and later Cllr Kieran McCarthy issued a statement commending the 112 people who submitted written objections.  He has also called for the Council to work with Cloughey & District Community Association (CDCA) to develop the area as a community garden area.  CDCA originally suggested that the area would be suitable for a wildflower garden.

Planning Application doomed from the start

Cloughey & District Community Association (CDCA) mounted a vigorous campaign to persuade individual Councillors to support the objections even though the Council had voted to sell off the land and apply for planning permission. 

Although the application has not yet been formally refused, it appears that the Council will not seek to have the recommendation overturned.  In any case it is difficult to see how this could be done since the land lies in an area designated as green belt by the Draft Ards & Down Area Plan.  Interestingly, the Council did not object to the proposed designation in the Area Plan, and no other objections related to the land, so there is no opportunity for the designation to be changed in the final published Area Plan.